Perception Changes Everything

I have been thinking about writing this blog post for some time now, but I’ve been conflicted on it. It seems that people are blind to their biases and don’t realize the consequences to them. Let’s start with the obvious ones:

I’m from Texas, so that makes me biased to anything ‘Texas’

We have 3 dogs that are all Boxers and only 1 cat, makes me more of a ‘Dog’ person and partial to the Boxer breed

My husband and I are both Army Veterans, so I’m more partial to the Army over the other military branches

My husband owns a Ford truck and I own a Volvo, guess that means I’m a snob and he isn’t🤔

We have iPhones and Macs in our family – so we obviously prefer Apple over Windows

Sometimes people want to have their voices heard and that’s not a bad thing as we all have opinions, we all have our own experiences, and that doesn’t make any ONE person a better judge than the other, instead it’s what makes life amazingly special and significant! I can’t imagine how boring it would be if every person liked the same thing and no one had differing thoughts.

Unfortunately at one point, it seems we’ve turned into an ‘us vs. them’ society. The misunderstanding that if you don’t agree with someone or something – then you obviously hate that person or idea. This couldn’t be more far from the truth. I know as Christians, we’re assumed to be intolerant, homophobic, racist, and what’s the latest thing if you’ve supported the President’s job performance – Trump’sters’?!?

I am saddened by the state of social media, people assume that because someone else doesn’t agree with them that they must be _________________ (fill in the blank). Most people won’t even acknowledge they have a bias, because it’s looked at as a negative instead of just part of life.

For the record: I’m not talking about prejudices, there is a difference in those who believe that one group of people are superior to another – that is NEVER acceptable.

People will share posts on social media because it fits in with their viewpoint, regardless of the authenticity – truth be damned mentality. AND this is where I need to clarify something else:

Bias is normal in individuals, Prejudice is NOT normal, and there are a few places where Bias should NEVER be allowed – our Media being the biggest offender! The whole point of a free press was to report the facts, not pieces of information with the intention to make a story bias. This trend has made a mockery of our First Amendment – by using blatant bias in reporting, we have seen journalism go from Pulitzer to Propaganda – thus the distrust of the mainstream media being ‘Fake News’!

We live in a time where news can be shared instantly and without all the facts, people immediately form an opinion on half truths and skewed views – condemning a person without a ‘fair trial’. Because of these biases, we are beginning to see a trend – most recently Facebook and Twitter have already proven to censor conservative voices with ‘Shadow Banning’ and ‘Facebook Jail’ significantly more than liberal voices.

Do you know why in America, home of the 1st Amendment, this is considered acceptable – because people look at bias with the same contempt that should be reserved for prejudice…at least that’s my thought on it.